Last night we stormed Castle Ravenloft

Or at least we did in the board game.

I got the Castle Ravenloft board game for Christmas and I had not played it all yet.  The boys wanted to play some D&D last night (so much so they they were each writing their own adventures when I told them I had nothing ready) but I have something like 65,000 courses to work on before the term starts back up on Monday (out that might be a stretch...48,000).   So we compromised a bit.  I pulled out the Ravenloft Board Game.

I knew we could set up it up and run it in under an hour and my boys love the old "Dungeon" game so I figured what the heck.

We had a great time.

The mere fact that one of the characters is blue colored Dragonborn is enough for my oldest.  I let my youngest use the new elf-archer mini I got for him over the weekend to be the ranger.  I played the Dwarf cleric and we went after the Dracolich.  Since I also have the dracolich mini we used that instead of the non-painted version that came in the box.  The game is D&D4-ish and moves really fast.  Game play is about like Dungeon.  The boys loved that the monsters were random and that combat was fast.  We all liked the "build you own dungeon" feel of it too.

The thing that gets me though...why Ravenloft?  Other than vampires, hags some undead and things like that I see no reason why this had to be set in Castle Ravenloft.  I get the dungeon-crawlyness of it, and I understand the desire to tie it in with a Classic product; but the game could have just as easily been the Tomb of Horrors Board Game or Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Board Game.  Frankly, I could swap out Strahd for Acererak and kept everything else the same (hear that WotC, your next boxed Board Game can be Tomb of Horrors and I want a cut!).   Of course their is obvious reason.  I got this pretty much sight unseen and wanted it largely because it was Ravenloft.  Now that I do have I am much more interested in Wrath of Ashardalon and the Legend of Drizzt one coming out in the Fall.

Yeah, yeah I hear the peanut gallery out there already smirking and saying they thought D&D$ was already a board game...whatever, that argument is old and no longer has any interest to me.  This was more akin to other adventure board games, like Dungeon really.  Plus it was fun.

Looking forward to taking on Strahd sometime soon.  Though I am torn.  If I ever run the original Castle Ravenloft for my boys I don't want the experience to be lack-luster for them.  I mean if they kill Strahd once in the board game, defeating him in his proper element might not have the same weight.

The new edition "They Will RUIN it!!!!"

And other things your are not hearing from Call of Cthulhu fans right now.

Chaosium has announced that they are going to produce a new Seventh Edition of their flagship game, Call of Cthulhu.

In many ways I am with James over at Grognardia, http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-to-do-new-edition.html

The edition changes for CoC have never been a jarring as the ones for D&D.  Even the relatively minor changes between 3.0 and 3.5 were met with more angst and yelling than the changes to 6th ed CoC.  It could be that D&D has a much larger market share and thus more people to either complain or applaud the changes.

But it does make for an interesting point.

For the longest time the collective wisdom of the game industry has said that core books are what fuels the company coffers (and make no mistake this is about making money and that is NOT a bad thing).  This wisdom is reflected in many realities.  The price I get paid for X Core vs. Y Splat freelancing gigs and what you see reflected in sales numbers on such sites as DriveThruRPG or Amazon.  It means that new core rulebooks are necessary to keep a business afloat.

I for one am looking forward to CoC 7 and I am sure it will work well with my CoC 5th ed.

New Release Tuesday

One year later two of my favorite authors have new books out again for their kick-ass supernatural heroines; Callie Reaper-Jones and Rachel Morgan.

Amber Benson takes us back to hell, heaven and everywhere in between with Callie, the Daughter of Death in Serpent's Storm.

Kim Harrison gives book 9 (nine! already?) of the Rachel Morgan series, Pale Demon.

There is a really good review of this book up on All Things Urban Fantasy now that say buy two copies, one for you and one for a friend.

Looking forward to both of these!

April Blogging Challenge, Part 2

I did a bit of quick work today between meetings on campus and have about 20 posts I can do right now out of 26.  So I think I am in good shape for this!

I also see the idea is catching on, there are a few other RPG/OSR/Cool blogs out that I follow and they follow me that are also taking up the challenge.

So here they are:
Porky's Expanse! This is the blog that first signed up that I got the idea from.
Axe & Hammer, a new one to me, but love what I read so far.
Sea of Stars, an Other side regular!
Places to Go, People to Be. One of my favorite names for a blog ever.
Calvin's Canadian Cave of Coolness.  Still not sure what this one is all about, but I like it.

I plan to follow them during April to see what they do all month long.

A to Z blog challenge.

Blogging A to Z



I am going to be taking part in the BLOGGING FROM A TO Z APRIL CHALLENGE 2011 this April.  Everyday will be a new letter of the alphabet, A to Z, that will form the base of my daily post.  I'll post something everyday, save Sunday, for a total of 26 posts.

Topics will stick to topics I have done here in the past and possibly others that the letter would give me the excuse to post something different.

It should be interesting and fun and I am looking forward to the challenge.

Weekend Recap

Had our first Northlands game group on Saturday.  It was fun. We are playing Pathfinder and have a good group. I am looking forward to more.  The world we are in is one the GM has made, so there are some familiar names mixed in with some that are not, so I am looking forward to seeing how this all works out.

Speaking of Pathfinder. I went to one of the closing Borders books here in the Chicago area and picked up a new Pathfinder core book for my kids to have. It was 30% off.

Mike Mearls has a new column up on WotC's D&D page called "Legends and Lore" which is designed to talk about D&D and it's past, present and future.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20110208
Of course, as expected the OSR glitterati have weighed in, most with predictable comments.
http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2011/02/legends-and-lore.html
http://platinumwarlock.blogspot.com/2011/02/in-which-warlock-has-bone-to-pick.html
http://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2011/02/mike-mearls-plea-for-unity.html
http://moldyvale.blogspot.com/2011/02/mike-mearls-whines-for-solidarity.html
http://wondrousimaginings.blogspot.com/2011/02/oh-yeah-mearles-then-put-your-money.html
http://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2011/02/wizards-needs-to-take-leadership.html

I am one of those people that sees more similarities in the games than I do differences, so Mearls' post, while written toward me is not actually directed at me if you know what I mean.  Nor is it really directed at the OSR (which is frankly  too small to be a concern).  While most of the reaction is the same knee-jerk stuff I'd expect, there is a point that nearly everyone makes that I think is worth WotC's time to look in to.  Bringing back older edition in PDF form.  Yes the cynic in me says why should they bother to sell rules to people who already own them, the deeper cynic in me knows that people will buy them anyway (I have) and make money for WotC.
I think a perfect world in WotC's eyes would be that people play what they want, but still buy a DDi subscription.

Gonna be a busy week.  Posting might be light.

Zatannurday: DC Universe Online

Promotional pic of Zatanna for the DC Universe MMORPG.

http://www.mpog.com/gamelist.cfm?game=350&view=news&page=1&read=16091